Referees and Human Players

[RMiller]

Originally Posted by RMiller

The only time I called this was in the eliminations when I noticed balls were not being picked out of the corral. The worst part was it changed the outcome of the match.

I should note, I don't think it was the intention of the team to break the rules. It was actually a team I highly respect that was supposed to be responsible for getting the balls out of the corral. Ultimately, I think it was a case of watching the match instead of their responsibilities or lack of awareness of the rules.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by neshera

Thanks for a great (and quick!) discussion.
It seems we really need six referees + the head ref for each match, or to empower the volunteers behind the glass to talk to the referees, and to let the teams know about this.
Now: where do we take these suggestions? Who do I contact at FIRST?

Maybe what we really need is for all players to read, understand, and obey the rules. At times there's chaos in the player's station. I assert that adding referees, meddeling field reset, and teachable moments does not address the core of that problem.

[AlexD744]

I saw quite a sad thing at South Florida this week. During a quarter-final match, a human player began throwing the balls over the wall before 30 seconds was called. Furthermore, until the head ref noticed, the other ref stood idly by as the ball's flew into the field. After the head ref noticed, she incurred 4 more penalties before she heard the yells from the people behind her (in queing) telling her to stop. Thankfully for her, it was not the deciding factor in the match, but it is still hard to see that happen, especially in eliminations.